By Kris Hudson
The Pro Football Hall of Fame plans to dip into Walt Disney's
playbook to build a sports version of the famed entrepreneur's
theme parks.
But whether football fans will flock to the large
athletic-and-entertainment complex in Canton, Ohio, in the same
numbers that Mickey Mouse fans travel to Walt Disney World in
Orlando, Fla., isn't a sure bet.
The $476 million development would be an expansion of the Hall
of Fame's museum-and-stadium complex in Canton, roughly 60 miles
south of Cleveland. The plans, outlined Tuesday, call for the
construction of a four-star hotel, a 35,000-square-foot conference
center, NFL Experience exhibition hall, playing fields, shops,
training space, and 150 condominiums or apartments for retired
National Football League players. It aims for the first phase to be
completed by 2019.
"In some respects, our goal is to steal a page from Disney,
which not only gives you a place to visit but an experience," said
David Baker, the Hall of Fame's president.
Visitors to Disney theme parks can stay at hotels, eat at
restaurants and shop on-site, something the Hall of Fame wants to
do with its proposed complex. It aims to outfit its Tom Benson Hall
of Fame Stadium, which it shares with nearby schools, as a
year-round venue to host concerts and other big events. At the
proposed NFL Experience exhibition hall, modeled after venues set
up at recent Super Bowls, visitors can take part in interactive
exhibits that, for example, might measure how far and how
accurately they kick or throw a football.
The Hall of Fame and its partners are assembling financing for
the project. The hall itself has put up $32 million to be used for
the project. The project's master developer, Los Angeles-based
Industrial Realty Group LLC, anticipates that it and other partners
will contribute equity of $50 million to $100 million and raise
other money through debt. Roughly $80 million to $100 million more
could be generated over time by pending state legislation to create
a tourism-development district at the Hall of Fame site, which
would use certain tax revenue for financing public infrastructure
at the site.
The NFL reigns as the most popular sports league in the U.S.,
but it has incurred several controversies in recent years,
including damaging publicity over the league's handling of head
injuries and whether it ignored evidence of the harmful effects of
concussions. The league reached a settlement over concussions in a
class-action lawsuit brought by retired NFL players, and a federal
judge approved the pact last month. The pact could cost the NFL
more than $1 billion over 65 years.
The inclusion of housing for NFL veterans underlines that issue.
Mr. Baker said most details remain to be determined on the
residential component, to be called Legends Landing. Whether
Legends Landing will be for-sale condominiums or rental apartments
will depend partly on which development partner builds that portion
of the campus. It is envisioned to include assisted-living units
for elderly and disabled players. The units won't be restricted to
NFL retirees, "but they will have the priority," Mr. Baker
said.
To be sure, there are questions about whether the economic
benefits of the project are overly optimistic.
In a news conference Tuesday, Hall of Fame officials presented
an economic-impact study that estimates that the completed project
might generate nearly $493 million in extra direct spending
annually in Canton's Stark County. The study predicts the Hall of
Fame's attendance, which tallied nearly 220,000 last year at its
museum and 700,000 for its enshrinement-weekend activities, will
balloon to three million a year by 2024 with the added
attractions.
However, similar big, sports-related developments in the past
have failed to live up to expectations. Former Texas Rangers owner
Tom Hicks's plan to build a 75-acre mixed-use project called
Glorypark Town Center near Rangers Ballpark and AT&T Stadium,
home of the Dallas Cowboys, in Arlington, Texas, never got off the
ground.
Of course, some stadium plans have helped to revive portions of
their cities, as did the 2002 opening of Gillette Stadium in
Foxborough, Mass., and the 2004 opening of Petco Park in San Diego.
But critics of public funding for sports venue said those are among
the exceptions.
Heywood Sanders, a professor of public administration at the
University of Texas at San Antonio who specializes in tourism and
convention centers, is a frequent critic of these types of
expansion projects. He said he doubts the estimates for a large
increase in attendance at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
"The dilemma is, for a facility that's been averaging around
200,000 attendees for 40 years, assuming any significant increase
is open to serious question," he said. "But assuming an increase of
this magnitude just doesn't seem plausible."
Bill Krueger, a principal at advisory firm Conventions, Sports
& Leisure International, which conducted the economic-impact
study with several partners, conceded that projected attendance of
three million "is a large number. But, by year 10, with all of
these pieces and the international recognition of the NFL and the
Hall of Fame, those projections could be achievable."
Write to Kris Hudson at kris.hudson@wsj.com
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